VALLEY CENTER  The demolition Monday of several Civilian Conservation Corps buildings on Valley Center school district property stunned historic preservationists who had fought to save the structures.

“This breaks my heart,” said Jon Vick, a leader of the Civilian Conservation Corps Camp Interest Group, consisting of more than 400 Valley Center residents who were trying to save the buildings.

The group hired an attorney after the Valley Center-Pauma Unified School District voted Thursday, March 14, to clear the 2-acre site, on Cole Grade Road adjacent to Valley Center Elementary and near the district headquarters. Attorney Kevin Johnson sent a letter Monday to district officials after learning that the structures were being razed. The letter asked that “demolition activity cease immediately.”

By noon, three of the seven buildings were a pile of wood and rubble, and heavy machinery was tearing down a fourth building.

Superintendent Lou Obermeyer was out of the office Monday and unavailable for comment, an employee said. A written message was left for Obermeyer. In addition, Obermeyer and board members had not responded by late Monday afternoon to an email requesting comment on the demolition. Chris Beebe, the district’s director of maintenance and operations, was on the site Monday, but said he could not comment.

AAA Demolition owner Gary Goodemote said he was hired about three weeks ago to remove seven buildings. Goodemote, who declined to reveal the amount of the contract, said the demolition and clearing is expected to take four days. He said asbestos abatement took place about a week ago.

The buildings had fallen into disrepair, but the supporters were steadfast in their efforts to save them because of the history of the site, said Robert Lerner, a Valley Center Historical Society board member.

The buildings opened in 1933 as a Civilian Conservation Corps camp, and continued to be occupied until 2007, Lerner said. In 1940, the camp was headquarters of 8th Regiment of California State Guard. Between 1940 and 1947, 1,500 men went through military training there. After World War II, the land was transferred to the California Department of Forestry. It closed in 2006, when the department moved to a new location about a mile away.

The school district bought the property in 2011.

The March 14 school board agenda listed an “Update on the California Department of Forestry Property” as an information and possible action item.

Vick gave a presentation that night, followed by about 40 minutes of testimony, Lerner said. The historic preservation supporters said they were surprised by a public proposal at the meeting from longtime North County businessman Arie de Jong, who offered to buy the property for $255,000, what reports say the district paid for it; restore the buildings for community and school use and sell the property back to the district for the same amount.

Lerner said board members did not ask questions or discuss the presentation or testimony before voting to clear the site.

The next day, the group’s attorney sent a letter to the district expressing concerns about possible violation of the state’s open-meeting act and requesting that no action be take “with respect to the physical demolition of the structures on the subject property.” The district did not respond, Vick said.

The board’s vote Thursday came as a surprise, preservationists said. “I think they already had their minds made up … regardless of what was presented,” Vick said.